I've Just Seen A Face
by Faulty Cameras
Summary: Seth's been invading Ryan and Taylor's home for the past year and they've finally had enough. He resists until he meets someone who he thinks could change his life. There's only one problem: she hates him. AU SS.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own The OC and the title of the story is from The Beatles.

A/N-This has been on my computer for about a month half finished and I finally could not longer fight the urge to finish and post it. So yea, it's another AU Seth and Summer story, which so far I really like. Hopefully you all think so too. Thanks to Meg for editing this (twice) for me.

* * *

Seth crossed his arms unhappily. He looked over at Taylor and Ryan who were giving him a disgusting PDA show.

This was not why he had decided to come. Hell, he hadn't event wanted to come.

Ryan and Taylor had made him. Okay, more accurately Taylor had made him. Ryan could care less if Seth lived on their couch for the rest of their lives.

Taylor on the other hand, seemed to mind a lot. It was probably because she had thought he was going to be living with them for a week, a month tops.

One year later and he still called their couch home.

It wasn't his fault that his life had basically crumbled a year ago. He had a great life then. He had this job that he loved, he had an amazing girlfriend, Alex, and a good apartment with her.

Well, he got fired from his job because of pay cuts, and Alex suddenly decided that she was way more into girls and she took his apartment from him. Therefore, he was left girlfriendless, homeless, and penniless. All in all it was a fan-freakin-tastic life that he was living.

Ryan had taken pity on him. It had taken much persuading from Taylor to let him stay on the couch. There had been some words exchanged between the two when they were having a 'hushed' conversation that he had never wanted to hear. Mostly about Wednesday nights, that had been the most scarring. He almost boycotted the couch as he really didn't want to hear any more sexual going ons between his brother and his wife.

Somehow, they compromised. Seth would get out of the apartment on Wednesday nights and on the occasional Saturday he would take their two kids out so they could have more alone time.

Taylor had apparently only signed up for the month. Seth hadn't done anything in the whole year that he had been living in the apartment. It wasn't a large apartment to begin with and when you added a two and a four year old plus a 29 year old grown man-well it was crowded. He really wanted to leave the apartment, but he found that he was incapable of doing anything. More accurately, he was incapable of getting a job. Apparently, at job interviews, telling them you lived with your brother and his wife wasn't what they were looking for.

He was thankful for Taylor and Ryan. He had actually grown quite accustomed to their couch. He loved taking care of his niece and nephew, Hannah and Sam. They loved having their uncle Seth always there-they considered him to be pretty awesome.

So all in all, Seth was satisfied with his life. He thought that Ryan and Taylor were okay with it too. Hello, they got their Wednesday nights plus a live in babysitter. To him, it was a nice living arrangement.

Ryan and Taylor had expressed otherwise to him the other day. They had sat him down in the kitchen and talked to him about their future.

They were going to buy a house. Seth had gotten really excited, almost like a kid in a candy store, because he was thinking that they were going to buy a house with an extra room and he would get to live with them still. As much as he loved their couch, it was doing horrible things to his back. He needed the feel of a nice fluffy mattress under him. He had already been dreaming of which mattress to get (Sealy or Serta? Such a difficult decision) when they broke the news.

Taylor was pregnant again. After receiving some death glares about her being Fertile Myrtle, he had expressed his sincere (not a word used often with Seth) excitement about the future Atwood baby number 3. He then put in his input that they should name the baby Seth, regardless of its gender. And then made an offhand comment about how great those Wednesday nights must be or something ridiculous.

And that was when Taylor started screaming at him.

He had to agree with thoughts expressed from Ryan when she was pregnant with Luke two years ago: she was a scary woman when pregnant. He had never had firsthand experience with it before and he wasn't too pleased.

But he wanted them to know he was supportive of them. He shared how he would totally learn how to take care of the baby and that he would take care of Taylor's late night cravings and all since Ryan actually had a job to get to while he could sleep all throughout the day. Then he stated something about going to birthing classes and learning 'the ropes' just in case Taylor went into early labor.

Apparently that pissed Taylor off even more, as she told him he wasn't allowed to live with them anymore. He was beside himself and had blamed it on her hormones. He even stated that-well big mistake there. She had left the room in tears of frustration and then Ryan put his 'serious Ryan talk' face on. That was when Seth knew.

He was once again homeless, jobless, and penniless.

Life really does come full circle.

And that was how he ended up at a bowling alley. A bowling alley of all freakin places. He hated bowling alleys. They had a weird smell to them, the bowling balls were greasy, and the whole wearing shoes that multiple people had worn before really didn't sit well with him.

It was all Ryan's idea-or Taylor's idea expressed from Ryan. They weren't going to leave him completely in the dust. They had decided to at least try and help him get a job before they moved. So their first mission was to get him a job. They had also made it very clear that this was their only mission, getting him a job. After this, he was on his own.

Apparently, the only place willing to hire him was a bowling alley. How…depressing.

He walked ahead of Ryan and Taylor, considering he was sick of watching their walking (literally) PDA show. It was a little old, really, he got that they were in love and whatever, but he didn't need to see it 24/7.

He walked inside and saw all the…bowlers. God. He shook his head. Had he really gone from working at a prestigious comic book company to a bowling alley? Life really did suck.

He looked around, wondering what he was supposed to do. He looked at Ryan and Taylor expectantly. He was glad to note that they had managed to keep their hands off of each other for several minutes.

"I'm going to go over there and get some French fries," Taylor said.

She walked away, leaving Ryan to help Seth. Seth gave him another look.

"What do you want me to do?" Ryan asked.

"Do I really have to get a job here?" Seth whined. "It's the shoes. They bug me."

"Shut up Seth. The only reason we're getting you a job here is because Taylor knows someone who works here and she was nice enough to talk to her boss about making you their latest employee. Be happy we got you anything."

"And I thank you for that, I really do. But she couldn't, oh I don't know, picked the friend who worked at a clothing store? Or somewhere where people don't wear other people's shoes?" Seth shuddered just at the thought of that.

"Seth. You're almost 30 years old."

"29 and ¾," Seth muttered. He didn't like to admit that he was almost 30. He tried to pretend that he wasn't anywhere close to it. He was basically in major denial.

Ryan, as usual, ignored Seth's mumblings. "You need to get a real job."

"And a job at a bowling alley is one?"

"No. It's your job to get you money so you can get your own apartment before you can get a job that is nice and pays well."

"Oh. Right," he paused. "No clothing stores at all?"

They approached the counter, looking for someone. No one came over to them.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Seth called. "Oh look Ryan, no one is here. Guess that means they have an adequate amount of people working for them."

"Oh no, you're not getting out of just like that," Ryan said. He looked at the slip of paper in his hand that Taylor had given him. "Uh…is there someone named Summer here? Summer Roberts?"

A head popped up suddenly. Seth was rather dumbstruck when he saw her.

She was officially the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Really and truly. All thoughts of Alex were gone from his head (those images had stayed with him for a while too) and it was all about this girl. He didn't even know her name and he already liked her. He told himself that it was wrong to base feelings just based on looks but he couldn't help it. He could tell that there was something about her, something that told him she was the kind of girl he had been looking for all his life.

It's funny how just seeing a face can change your whole attitude on everything.

"Are you looking for me?" she asked impatiently.

"Uh yea. My wife, Taylor Atwood, sent me for my brother here," Ryan gestured to Seth.

"Oh right. She called me about him. She said he was a special case." Summer studied him for a minute. She shook her head and then turned back to what she was doing.

"So, do I have a job?" Seth asked eagerly.

She looked at him again, obviously scrutinizing him. She shrugged. "Yea. We need more people working here. You wouldn't be my first choice, but Taylor begged me, so I talked to Jeff-that's our boss-for her."

"We thank you very much for that," Ryan commented.

"So when can I start?"

Summer looked surprised at his eagerness. Seth was even surprised himself at the excitement that was in his voice.

"You can start now I guess. Maura called in sick tonight."

"Okay. I'll start now then," Seth said, a smile on his face.

Ryan shook his head at his brother. "I'm going to go get Taylor and we're going to leave. Here."

He had tried to shove some money into Seth's hands. Well, if there was ever a way to impress a girl, his brother shoving money at him was _not_ one of them.

"What are you doing Ryan?" Seth hissed.

"How else are you going to get home? I know that your wallet is empty."

"Dude, seriously?" Seth shot his glance towards Summer. "This is not cool."

Ryan just rolled his eyes, taking the money back. "Fine, you can walk home then."

Ryan left Seth alone, who turned and looked at Summer. She just shook her head then walked away from him.

Seth looked around. He wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do. He just kind of stood awkwardly for a few minutes. Should he have followed Summer? Wow, he was pretty sure that he was already failing at his new job.

Summer came back, a shirt in hand. "Okay, here's your shirt." She thrust it at him. "It's Cohen right?"

"Well, that's my last name, it's actually-"

"So today, one of the genius employees that Jeff hired decided it would be fun to screw around and put all the shoes in different spots. Your job is to fix all of them, putting them where they belong."

Seth stopped in his tracks. He seriously had to touch the shoes all night? Of course this would happen to him.

"It's not that hard."

Summer started explaining to him what he was supposed to do, but he stopped paying attention after she started talking. He hoped that Summer would continue working with him. He wanted to talk to her. Perhaps after work she would want to go get a drink or something. He wasn't really sure what people liked to do after they worked anymore, it had been so long since he had done so.

"…Okay, so do you understand what you have to do?" Summer asked.

Seth had no clue what she just said, but decided to just agree anyways. She didn't seem like the type of the person who would take kindly to him not paying attention to her. He just nodded his head.

"Here's your shirt. Good luck," she said.

Just then Seth noticed that she had her coat and purse with her. "You're not working anymore?"

She gave him a weird look, which he didn't blame her, as it was kind of creepy that he had even decided to ask that, but answered him anyways. "My shift is over. You're working with him now." She gestured to a man standing at the counter.

Seth wasn't going to lie; he was more than a little alarmed at the sight of this man. He looked like he could squish Seth just by sitting on him and the tattoos up and down his arm weren't much of a confidence builder in Seth. He gulped before looking back to Summer.

"I'm working with him."

She nodded. "Yep, that's Bubba."

He was working with a man who could probably squish him whose name was Bubba. It was official: this job was ridiculous.

"His name is really Bubba?"

"That's what we've always called him," she shrugged, obviously not too concerned. "Whatever, not like it matters. I really have to go now."

Before Seth could even say goodbye, she had left the bowling alley. He sighed, realizing that now that she was gone, work just didn't seem like it was going to be fun.

He looked down at all of the shoes that were piled. All of the shoes that had been worn by hundreds of people over many many years. And he had to touch every single one of them.

Work was definitely not fun at all.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own The OC.

A/N-Wow, so I hadn't realized it had been this long since I updated this. Whoops. It just took a little while for me to decide what I wanted to do with this story. I still don't particularly know, but oh well. Reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter and to Meg for editing.

* * *

"We've got some news for you Seth," Taylor announced looking at him excitedly.

"Oh I've got some news too." Seth sat down on the couch, enjoying the fact that he was finally able to relax for a little while.

He had just arrived home from his fourth day of work. It was his fourth day of working at the bowling alley and he was j done. He was so sick and tired of doing that, even if he was still just really getting used to everything. His lazy side was coming out and he didn't want to do anything anymore.

Truthfully, he just really hated being the newbie on the job. They all stuck him with the worse jobs in the world. Like earlier today, he had to redo the stupid shoes again because he apparently had done it wrong the other night.

And then he had to clean the bathrooms, which was just downright disgusting. He didn't think that bowling alley bathrooms would be so gross, considering in the few days he had worked there, very few people actually went bowling or at least that he had seen. And he had to clean the nacho cheese off of the floor near one of the lanes that someone had spilled last night but hadn't bothered to get someone to clean it.

Nacho cheese, when hardened to an already disgusting floor, was impossible to get it off. And night old nacho cheese smelled, well, gross.

On top of those things, Summer seemed out to get him. A lot actually. She was the one sticking him with all the odd jobs and kept yelling at him for doing things wrong, even if it was just a small itty bitty one. He was thinking that it was because he had hit on her the second night on the job. She, apparently, did not take kindly to her employees hitting on her. Of course, no one thought to warn him at all about this. Not even Bubba who Seth had really bonded with the first night of working.

In his defense, he hadn't meant to hit on her. He really wanted to make a good impression on her and everything, since she was above him at the bowling alley and all.

But no. He just couldn't get her face out of his head, therefore somehow giving him the idea that hitting on her would be a good idea. Um, not so much.

Apparently, seeing her face--or anyone's face--in his mind made him do crazy things.

So now, he had decided that he was going to quit. He had decided that today at work when he accidentally knocked a row of bowling balls down and one fell on his foot. No one did anything to help him. Actually they all laughed at him. A lot. He was hopping around the alley, shouting obscene words, and they all just stared at him. It was so ridiculous. And it really hurt too. So that made up his decision to quit. They would probably be better off without him.

He wasn't too sure how he was going to break the news to Ryan and Taylor, after they had done so much for him. Well, actually, he did. He was just going to tell them straight out that as kind as it was that he needed to find a different place of employment. Preferably one that did not have any really good looking women, an employee named Bubba, or really large objects that could do severe damage to his health.

He, of course, came up with a plan. He had the perfect job for him to do.

He was going to be Ryan and Taylor's manny.

He realized that it sounded absolutely ridiculous but he had been doing it for pretty much the past year. So he was just going to tell Ryan and Taylor this and that all he required was a place to sleep and food three times a day. He didn't need any other type of payment. Their hospitality would be enough.

"So what's your news Seth?" Ryan asked, taking a seat opposite him next to Taylor.

"Oh, you guys go ahead with yours first. Mine might take a while."

"We found a house!" Taylor exclaimed.

"You already found a house? Wow, you two don't waste anytime."

"No, see we actually had found and bid on it the day that we told you we were thinking of getting a house. We just didn't want to jinx anything. They accepted our offer and the house is all ready for us to move in!" Taylor could barely contain her excitement about them finally getting a house.

"That's great. So, wanna hear my news now?"

"Of course Seth."

"I'm going to quit my job and become your manny."

Seth wasn't used to sitting in a room as silent as the room had just become. Well, he was not expecting this reaction. He had thought it was a really good idea.

"Seth," Ryan started.

Taylor interrupted him. "Okay, seriously Seth. We got you this job so that you would move out. Not so that you would come up with some ridiculous idea about being a manny."

"But it's a good idea. The kids already know me and they like me too. So it's perfect. I don't even expect a payment. Just a place to live for the rest of my life and three meals a day."

"That's what you're doing now basically. And we don't want that."

"Plus we don't have room for you," Taylor added.

"Don't have room for me?"

She shook her head. "No. We have five bedrooms. One for each of the kids, our room, and a room for guests. And before you even ask, no you cannot have the guest room."

Seth pouted. Of course his plan would backfire. He should have expected they would never go for the manny thing. "What am I going to do now? I'm back to where I was a year ago."

"No, you at least have a job."

"No, I have to quit. I cannot work there anymore."

"But it's your only option."

"There has to be something other than a stupid job at a bowling alley for me."

"Perhaps if you actually looked on your own…"

Seth crossed his arms. He had looked himself. It wasn't his fault that people didn't exactly think him a very good candidate for their jobs.

"And you need to have all your stuff out here by the weekend."

"The weekend?!" Seth exclaimed. That was in two days. He had no place to go.

"Yes. We're moving in and you need to go."

"Bu-but I don't have anywhere to go. Hello, I have only been working for a week. How am I supposed to get an apartment."

"Taylor, that is a little unfair. Don't you think?" Ryan said.

"Thank you for finally putting some reason out there!"

Taylor pursed her lips together. "Fine. I'll find a place for you to live. Okay? How's that sound?"

"Preferably a place that is not a box."

Taylor didn't say anything in response and for a few minutes, Seth thought that she was going to tell him that it as probably going to be in a box.

"If it is can it be a deluxe box?"

* * *

Seth stood behind the counter, watching the countless amount of teenagers in formal dresses and suits running around the alley. God. Whose crazy idea was it to go bowling after a formal dance? It didn't make any sense to him. At all. Sure, they got more use out of the dress, but all they did was run around screaming, laughing, and crying about drama that had previously unfolded.

Perhaps, had he been ten years younger, he might have thought this amusing, even slightly cute to see how they were acting. Alas, his age and all that he had experienced was making him angry and bitter. Plus they were all giving him a headache. He didn't need a headache.

"This is my favorite time of the year too." Summer came and stood next to him, watching the teenyboppers in front of them. Some ridiculous song by the Jonas Brothers or some equally ridiculous band had just come on. Oh God. He remembered the days when such a thing as good music actually existed. He missed it. He wanted that good music back.

"What kind of crap is this that we're listening to?" Seth questioned. He was getting crabbier by the minute. He was once again homeless, he was stuck listening to really bad music and he just wanted to go home.

"I don't know. It's what Jeff told me to put on so I did. They like it. They're paying. They get what they want."

Seth groaned. "How much longer are they going to be here?"

"Midnight bowling hasn't even started yet."

"Oh this sucks."

"It's not even the half of it. Wait until prom season."

Seth shook his head. This was going to get more and more painful with each passing day.

"Listen Cohen, Taylor called to talk to me. She said that you have another situation and

that you need a place to stay for a while. She said, and I'm quoting her on this one, "I need him out of my house permanently". So apparently because I have a two bedroom apartment she thought of me."

"Ah. Well, I'm glad to know that my sister-in-law is so fond of me."

"Well, I'm going to let you stay with me. But only for a little while. And you have to contribute somehow, even if it is just with groceries or something. And you have to follow my rules. It's not often that I let someone who I don't really like stay with me, but I owe Taylor."

Seth's heart sank a little at hearing that she didn't like him--and he was guessing that she meant in both the platonic and non platonic way. But he would get over it. He would rather stay with someone who didn't like him than be living on a box--a deluxe box--on the streets.

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

"And now, one of the teenyboppers happened to sneak alcohol into her dance and drank a little too much. She's currently puking her guts out in our bathroom and according to her other totally drunk friends, she didn't exactly do it neatly." Summer handed him a mop, a smile on her face. "Have fun."

Seth shook his head. He should have quit when he had the chance.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own The O.C.

A/N-I had almost given up on this story because I had absolutely no clue where I was going with this story. Last night, I started reading the first two chapters and I finally have a plot. It's a lot different direction than I had ever intended, but I think it's going to be pretty interesting. It doesn't really happen in this chapter, but in later chapters, this will most likely become very AU, mostly regarding Summer's past. Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter, feedback on this chapter would be greatly appreciated!!

* * *

"Cohen, get up."

Seth rolled onto his side, groaning. He peeked an eye open and saw the bright red letters glaring 5:30 at him. As in the morning.

"Nooo."

She pulled the covers off of him. "Seriously Cohen. You have to get up."

CIt's 5:30. In the morning. I didn't even realize that there was one of those in the morning."

"Just get up."

"Why do I have to get up at this ungodly hour?"

"Because I do."

"And because you have to get up so freakishly early because you're a freak, I have to get up too?" he questioned, unhappily rolling off the mattress that was being used as his bed.

"I don't trust you alone in my apartment."

"Don't you mean our apartment Summer dearest?"

"No. I mean mine. I don't trust you alone in my apartment."

"Ours."

"Mine."

"Ours."

"You are infuriating did you know that?"

"I try."

It had been a week since the two had moved in together. The week had pretty much been hell for the both of them. Seth was falling in love with Summer while she was hating his guts more and more with each passing day.

All right. Maybe almost setting her apartment on fire the second day he lived there wasn't the greatest way to make a good impression.

And the third day he had been living there, letting her cat, Miss Kitty Fantastico, (yea, he wasn't even going to touch that one) out of the apartment, starting a search that lasted for three hours for the cat who ended up being curled in the neighbors apartment hadn't been the best idea either.

And then yesterday, when she was out running errands, attempting to set up his PlayStation to her TV, instead breaking the TV definitely was a really bad idea.

Okay, so maybe he could understand why she wouldn't want him to stay alone in the apartment. But at five-freakin-thirty in the morning? That was a little extreme.

"Seriously, Cohen, you have ten minutes to get ready and then I want you out until I come pick you up."

"Where the hell are you going so early?"

"It's none of your business."

"I live with you. Don't you think I should know where you're going at all times just in case I'm2 0dying on the side of the road or something and need your help?"

She just blinked a few times at him. "Just get your clothes on."

"Where the hell am I supposed to go?"

"Does it look like I care Cohen? Just go somewhere. I'll drop you off wherever. In a ditch. On the side of the road. Anywhere would be nice."

"You should think about pulling that stick out of your ass. You're acting like even more of a bitch to me than you normally do."

"Just. Get. Dressed." She turned around and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

She hadn't turned around fast enough to miss the look that was in her eyes. It looked like it was mostly rage, but there was some other emotion, kind of like she was hurt by his statement. She probably was. Great. This living arrangement was going so well so far.

He pulled on what he thought was a clean pair of pants and a shirt then walked out of his room. He grabbed a Pop-Tart out of the cupboard (she refused to buy bagels, which was definitely a tragedy) and started to look for her to apologize to her. Sh e hoped that he wouldn't be totally pissed off at him. He seriously hoped she wouldn't be, as she seemed like she was the one person who was capable of killing him in his sleep and getting away with it.

"Sum?" He found her staring at the broken TV in the living room. He noticed she had a bag packed on the floor next to her.

"You're paying for it you know that right?"

He nodded his head. "I will. So…where you're going are you going to be staying more than one night?"

"Just overnight."

"Does that mean that I have to be out of the house until tomorrow too?"

"No. Here." She handed him a key. "You can come back to sleep but I expect to find this place in perfect condition when I get back tomorrow."

"Whoa, you're trusting me with a key? Isn't that a big step?"

"Shut it, Cohen. Let's go or I'm going to be late."

"Late for what?"

She didn't answer him, instead opting to leave the apartment. He rushed after her, deciding against badgering her more. He didn't feel like waking up dead the next time they spent the night in the apartment. Plus, it had only been a week. Maybe he should wait at least another two before she seriously wanted to kill him.

"Can you take me to Ryan and Taylor's?"

She looked at him, giving him a strange look. "You seriously want to go spend time with them? Even after they kicked you out of their house?"

"Well, I probably did deserve to be kicked out of their house. I mean, I was mooching off them for a whole year, but I was being their manny so you know they got a good deal out of the whole thing."

"You lived with them for a year? I didn't know that."

"Yea, well my girlfriend decided she liked girls way more than she liked me and decided that she and her new girlfriend got the apartment. And then I lost my job and things just went downhill from there."

"Wow. That really sucks."

"Tell me about it."

After that, the two both feel silent, which was really awkward. This reminded him of how little they really knew about each other. He wanted to get to know more about her than he already did. All he really did know about her was that he was in love with her and she kind of had her bitchy moments.

That definitely wasn't enough. He was going to press the issue of where she was going even more except the fact that she pulled into the driveway of Ryan and Taylor's house.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then. Please, don't burn the house down while I'm not there."

"I'll try not to, but I'm not making any promises," he smirked at her before shutting the door.

He walked up to the door, debating the best way of entering the house. They hadn't given him a key (something he totally couldn't understand why they would do that) and he wasn't sure of their alarm system so breaking in wouldn't be a good idea.

So he did what any normal person would do.

He rang the doorbell.

He was very alarmed by the fact that a dog started barking—until he realized that this was their new choice of an alarm system. He rang the doorbell again, just because he figured that they would finally wake up and come to the door.

He heard some grumbling and swearing coming from the inside and realized Ryan was coming to the door. Seth put on his cheeriest smile and waited for him to open it.

Ryan swung the door open, looking incredibly pissed off at someone being at his door at 6 in the morning. When he saw that it was Seth though…he looked rather livid. Seth couldn't really understand why though.

"Hey Ryan! I'm back."

* * *

So Seth had definitely learned his lesson on that one. He was stuck on Ryan and Taylor's front porch and had been there for the past two hours. It was a little embarrassing that he was stuck on their front porch with all of their doors locked. The paper boy had started laughing at him, and really, Seth didn't blame him. He would have laughed at some pathetic guy sitting on a front porch too.

The door opened up behind him and he turned to look. Taylor was standing behind him, a slight smirk on her face.

"Oh thanks for laughing at me."

"I'm sorry, Seth."

"Sorry for laughing at me or sorry for not letting me inside?"

"Sorry for laughing at you when the paper boy threw that newspaper at your head."

"That wasn't funny," Seth grumbled.

"From my point of view, it was pretty funny."

"Listen, can I come inside now? Summer kicked me out for the day and seriously, I don't have any friends, so that means nowhere else to go."

Taylor frowned. "Where did she go?"

"I don't know. She refused to tell me. She left with an overnight bag and said she would be back tomorrow. She gave me permission to sleep there, as long as I don't burn the place down. Oh and I finally got a key. You know, I've lived there for a week and she would make me wait until she got home because she didn't trust me enough to give me a key?"

"Wait, she went somewhere with an overnight bag?"

"Out of that whole little spiel, the only thing you care about is Summer going away for the night? Not the fact that your poor brother-in-law was being forced to sit on the front porch for hours at a time?"

"Um…yes. She didn't tell you where she went?"

"Like I already said, she didn't want to tell me."

"So she hasn't told you anything at all?"

"Um, I'm lucky she let me know which apartment was hers."

"Good, I'm glad you don't know anything."

"Do you know stuff?" Seth questioned, eyeing Taylor.

"Uh…no. Nope. I don't know anything."

"You so do."

Taylor sighed. "Okay, so maybe I do know stuff. It's from way back when I helped her, five years ago. I'm not allowed to tell you."

"But you know?"

"Yes."

"And you really can't tell me?"

"Seth, it's her private business. If she wanted you to know, she would tell you. It…it has a lot to do with her past, and I'm not the person to share this kind of stuff with you."

He sighed. He wasn't going to get anything out of her and maybe it was better that he didn't. He did have a bit of big mouth and he wanted her to be able to trust him. After all, one of his goals was to get her to fall in love with him.

Or at least let him stay in the apartment alone for more than just sleep.

"Will you not bug her about it when she comes home? Please? I really don't need you getting kicked out and having to live with us again."

"Admit it, Taylor, you miss me desperately."

"You keep telling yourself that Seth. Now, Hannah and Sam have been watching you for the last hour, and I thought keeping you out here any longer would be really cruel. You can come on inside, they want to play with you."

"Wow, I'm so glad you're finally going to let me in the house."

"Yea, we don't want the neighbors to start talking about our crazy relative. That's not the way to make a good impression. Gossip spreads through here like fire."

"Don't they have anything better to do?"

Taylor shook her head. "No, not really. You should listen to some of their stories though. Like I learned all about Mrs…but you don't care. Let's just go inside."

"I'm not even going to ask," Seth shook his head, letting himself inside the house before Taylor could say another word.

* * *

Seth yawned, stretching his arms over his head. It felt good to sleep later than 5:30, especially after the long day he had playing with his niece and nephew.

He knew Taylor and Ryan were really missing his manny services because as soon as he had gotten in the house, they had fled to their bedroom. He had laughed at their actions.

Even though they obviously missed him but wouldn't say anything, Seth wasn't too overly upset about that. It was nice to have his own room and not be woken up by a small child jumping up and down on his stomach.

So even though he missed his family, it felt good to be growing up.

And first on his list of things to do to officially be on his way to growing up, he was going to snoop through the apartment.

All right, as far as growing up goes, those actions of his pretty much failed. But really, wherever Summer had gone was starting to drive him even more insane as the night had gone on. A little innocent snooping wasn't going to do any harm.

He rolled off of his mattress and headed out of his room. After double checking to make sure she hadn't come home or anything while he was still asleep, he snuck into her room.

At first he was a little shocked at how impersonal the room was. The walls were bare, the comforter on the bed was white, and there was barely any color in the room. Even he had some pictures of his family in his room. It was as if she had no one in her life.

She had to have someone. He walked over the dresser, the only piece of furniture in the room besides the bed and a small rocking chair in the corner, and opened the top drawer. After getting over his awe that he was looking at Summer's underwear, he started moving things around, searching for something. At first he didn't think he had anything, until he found an envelope in the corner of the drawer.

He hesitated on opening it but slowly lifted the flap. He pulled out a small stack of pictures. So she did have a family.

They were mostly pictures of her, though once in a while one of a family member would pop up. He studied one, that had Summer, an older woman who resembled her, and a baby resting on the woman's hip. There was no writing on the back of the picture so it didn't tell him who was in the picture. Maybe she had a sister that he didn't know about.

Whoever it was, Summer didn't look happy to be standing next to them in the picture. She looked pissed, a look that Seth would recognize quite quickly. There was also a bit of sadness in her eyes. He wasn't sure why, because the other woman looked pretty happy to be in the picture.

He started to feel slightly uncomfortable, looking through all of her pictures. He carefully placed them back where he found them and walked out of her room. He sat down at the table after making some coffee.

He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do with himself now. He had no way of getting to Ryan and Taylor's, unless he wanted to talk for a million years. He wasn't sure if Summer would want him left alone in the apartment or not. He thought about heading out, just so he didn't get in trouble.

He got his answer quickly enough, as he heard the front door open up. He jumped up from the table, nervous that she was going to yell at him for something.

He watched as she walked inside, resting her head against the door after she closed it. Seth wasn't sure if he should just leave the room or if he should say something.

He picked the latter, deciding his best bet would be to make some sort of noise to make his presence known. He walked right into the end table, knocking into the glass vase on it. It did the job as Summer turned around abruptly.

"What the hell are you doing?" she exclaimed, looking at him.

"Ah, sorry. I heard the door, wanted to make sure it wasn't a robbery or something."

"Oh. Sorry." He noticed her furiously wiping at her eyes. He decided to neglect the redness around them.

What he couldn't neglect was the sadness that was in them. It was the same one that she had in the picture and he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever caused her sadness in the picture was what was causing the same sadness at this moment.

"Um…I didn't destroy anything," he commented quickly.

"That's great. I'm going to bed."

She walked into her room without another word to him. He watched her go, not saying anything more to her.

He wanted to know what was making her so sad, what was making her beautiful face seem so hurt and broken. As much as he wanted to know what was happening, he wasn't going to press the issue at the time.

He would find out eventually, when she wanted to tell him. When she trusted him. It was something he was going to work at it.

Because really, to him, it just seemed like she needed someone to trust.


End file.
